Ba Da Duck

This morning, Mike showed James his cowboy toy and James said, "Yee haw" (or his version, "ee-ah"). Later in the morning, I held out his sheep toy and said, "James, this is the sheep. What does the sheep say?" and he looked right at me and said, "Ba." (In fairness, James says "ba" a lot in his babbling.) And in the bathtub tonight he was reaching for the rubber ducky and said something (twice) that sounded a lot like "duck." Mike tells me James also looked at him and said "Dada."

So while one or some of these might just be chance babbling, I think somewhere in there we've got a first spoken word, one that's actually communicating rather than just imitating. Wow!

James is also in the pointing and "eh eh"-ing stage. He seems particularly interested in whatever is up high, on shelves or the mantels. I have explained to the boys that we put things up high because they are not for babies, but the boys do not seem swayed by this argument.

Like Mattie, James is also getting the hang of doing his shapes puzzle (at least one piece at a time!) And he really enjoys "playing" the piano. They both like putting things into containers and taking them out. (I am happy that they enjoy throwing the balls back into the ball pit just as much as they like tossing them out!)

Oh, and Jamesie was teasing his brother the other night. I'd let Mattie down from his high chair after dinner, and James was still in his seat eating a graham cracker. Mattie was standing nearby, and James leaned down and held down the cracker -- and when Mattie reached for it, James pulled it up out of reach and smiled! And then he did it again. :) Too funny! Fortunately, Mattie didn't care.

Mattie's new trick for today was putting the gears back on the posts on his gear toy. And did I mention that he's started sometimes coming over to us and giving us hugs? So sweet!

In other news, in addition to the three top teeth he's got coming in, James has at least one and maybe two new bottom ones appearing as well.  

[Photos are from yesterday.]